Forgotten Ground Regained
A Riddle
This poem was originally published in Witðowinde 50 p. 9.
Stripped to the skin, in cinders I sityet feel not the fire · who had feeling before.If you read now my riddle · aright after thought,what I’m like how I lived · you may learn from thy lore.Cramped was the cot · I came from at firsttill by struggling and striving · my strong bonds I burst.Yet I saw not the sky then · nor stood on the earth.No parent was present · at the place of my birth,but neighbors were near me · in numbers galore,all fostered by folk · who gave food in great store.No children I cherished, being chaste without choice,nor stirred up the sun · by the song of my voice.They who friendly had fed me, to foemen betrayed.I was haled from my home · and my heart was afraidwhen sternly they seized me · and slew me by force,then promptly the pillagers · plundered my corpse.Great crowds in my coffin · enclosed must be –though the weather was warm, it was winter for me.Now in shrouds that were sheer · we were sheeted at needand from winter to winter · we went with all speed.Next, lifted ere long from · where lowly I lay,they prepared me a pyre · in a place that was fit.The fuel was fetched · and the flame duly lit.Though the shroud that had sheathed me · was shed from me there,my companions are clothed, who go commonly bare.Then, stabbed with a spear, I was set there aloftwith odours and unguents · anointed full oft.No mourning was made, but mirth in good measure.The goods that they gave me · were gotten like treasureby men from the mould, though the mine was not deep.No hill is to hold me, no howe do they heapto leave me alone · at the last with my glory –fate otherwise ordered · the end of my story.Though they walk sev’ral ways, yet I’ll wend with each man.Now read me this riddle · aright if you can.
Copyright © Pat Masson, 1980. Reprinted with the permission of her family.
No part of this site may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems
Answer: A barbecued capon, hatched in an incubator, reared intensively, plucked and drawn,put in a deep-freeze, wrapped in polythene, transported to the cold cabinet of a supermarket, bought, unwrapped, cooked on a spit, basted with a spicy sauce, cooked with potatoes in their jackets.